Peter Obi Not Qualified To Sue Tinubu- APC.

The APC has asked the court to dismiss Peter Obi's petition on the ground that Mr Obi, the 1st petitioner, lacked requisite “locus standi” to institute the petition because  _he was not a member of LP at least 30 days to the party’s presidential primary, to have been validly sponsored by the party

The 1st petitioner (Obi) was a member of PDP until May 24, 2022."1st petitioner was screened as a presidential aspirant of the PDP in April, 2022.

"1st petitioner participated and was cleared to contest the presidential election while being a member of the PDP.

"1st petitioner purportedly resigned his membership of PDP on May 24, 2022 to purportedly join the 2nd petitioner (Labour Party) on May 27, 2022.

“2nd petitioner (LP) conducted its presidential primary on May 30, 2022 which purportedly produced 1st petitioner as its candidate, which time contravened Section 77(3) of the Electoral Act for him to contest the primary election as a member of the 2nd petitioner.”

The party argued that Obi was not a member of LP at the time of his alleged sponsorship.

The APC argued that “by the mandatory provisions of Section 77 (1) (2) and (3) of the Electoral Act 2022, a political party shall maintain a register and shall make such register available to INEC *not later than 30 days before the date fixed for the party primaries, congresses and convention.*”

It stated further that all the PDP’s presidential candidates were screened on April 29, 2022, an exercise Mr Obi participated in and was cleared to contest, while being a member of the party.

The APC argued that the petition was incompetent since Mr Obi’s name could not have been in LP’s register made available to INEC at the time he joined the party.

*The APC equally argued that the petition was improperly constituted, having failed to join Atiku Abubakar and PDP who were necessary parties to be affected by the reliefs sought.*

“By Paragraph 17 of the petition, the petitioners, on their own, stated that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar came second in the presidential election with 6,984,520 votes as against the petitioners who came third with 6,101,533 votes;_

_“At Paragraph 102 (ii) of the petition, the petitioners urged the tribunal to determine that 1st petitioner scored the majority of lawful votes, *without joining Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the petition.*_

For the tribunal to grant this prayer by the petitioners, the tribunal must have set aside the scores of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the election.

"Alhaji Atiku Abubakar must be heard before his votes can be discountenanced by the tribunal."_